Drug Topics - October 8, 2007 - (Page 24)

24 DRUG TOPICS OCTOBER 8, 2007 www.drugtopics.com Cover Story what we do,” Hoey said. “Does anybody really care that pharmacists can provide counseling to every patient? Probably not—because they don’t know what counseling means. Tell them that we can save tens of thousands of lives by talking to people about their medicaDT CAPSULE tions and they suddenly Pharmacy is beginning start to understand why pharmacy counts.” Michael Cohen, presito seek political allies dent of the Institute for outside the profession. Safe Medication Practices, sees a similar problem. Pharmacists equate counseling with information and improved medication use. But for many people, counseling implies drug abuse or misuse. “So when you ask them if they want counseling, patients are insulted by the perceived implication,” he said. “The last thing they want to do is talk to you. We should be talking about education and information, not counseling.” Miscommunication lies at the heart of many of the profession’s problems, noted Stephen Schondelmeyer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., director of the PRIME Institute at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Pharmacists communicate through the pages of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy and the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, he said. Legislative, regulatory, and financial decision-makers communicate in the Wall Street Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, New York Times, New England Journal of Medicine, and USA Today. If pharmacists want to influence decision-makers’ thinking, they must publish in the pages that those decision-makers read, Schondelmeyer said. And pharmacists must write about ways pharmacy can help society, not about ways pharmacy can help itself. “Pharmacists are good at talking about pharmacy,” he said. “But they’re not so good at talking about how pharmacy can affect society. That means pharmacists have not been at the table when decisions that affect them get made.” Speak your piece F ormer House Speaker Tip O’Neill always reminded supporters (and opponents) that all politics are local. That gives the 200,000 or so pharmacists who live, work, and vote in almost every electoral district in the nation a potent advantage—but only if they speak out. “Consumers get so much of their information from the media,” said Janet Engle, executive associate dean and clinical professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy. “But it is physician after physician after physician who they see and hear. Pharmacists have to court the media just as actively as physicians and other healthcare practitioners.” What’s the connection between political clout and local media exposure? A straight line, said Douglas Hoey, R.Ph., National Community Pharmacists Association senior VP and COO. Elected officials are moved in large part by public opinion. And nothing evokes public opinion more powerfully than regular media coverage in a legislator’s home district. “Modesty is our own worst enemy,” Hoey said. “People who are not friends of pharmacy are telling their side of every story at pharmacy’s expense. You can see the result in decisions at every level of government. Individual pharmacists have to step out and talk about the value and the relevance of pharmacists and pharmacy.” Every event that has a health angle, from natural disasters to zoning ordinances, hospital construction, health benefits, avian influenza, new drug approvals, adverse event reports on existing drugs, healthcare policy and legislative debates, and more—all should be explained by a pharmacist. “Local outlets are anxious for copy and opinion from local healthcare providers,” Hoey said. “Those local articles get a lot of attention in Washington and in all 50 state capitals. We have not had that voice in the past, and we are living with the consequences.” The Gang of Seven? Pharmacists have not pushed their way into the healthcare policy debate, Schondelmeyer said. But that may be changing. ASHP has a nationwide “Just Ask!” your pharmacist campaign to boost public awareness of pharmacy. CVS and other drug chains have been promoting pharmacist services, not drug prices, in their commercials to the Medicare Part D population. NCPA has quietly boosted its Washington, D.C., lobbying staff from three to 13 in the past two years, Hoey said. Representing pharmacy’s interests on the Hill has become the association’s top priority. The biggest push may come from NACDS. Earlier this year, the association hired Steven Anderson away from the National Restaurant Association, where he boosted membership by 70% in seven years and helped form a key business lobbying group the Washington Post dubbed the Gang of Six. The six include the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. All have a deep-seated financial interest in boosting healthcare quality while controlling costs. Anderson noted that the Chamber of Commerce, which has never taken a position on pharmacy, recently supported http://www.drugtopics.com

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Drug Topics - October 8, 2007 Latebreakers Latebreakers in Depth Letters Rx Care Community Practice JP at Large 150 Years of American Pharmacy Hospital Practice Are You Getting Pharmacy's Message Across? Self-Care Government and Law Legal Q&A The Pharmacist as First Responder in Disaster Relief Technology Update New Products Advertisers Index Statement of Ownership Classified Viewpoint

Drug Topics - October 8, 2007

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